Improvement in harvesters



UNITED STATES.

PATENTl OFFICE.

ANDREW RALSTON, OF WEST MIDDLETOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.

IM PROVEM ENT IN HARVESTERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 23,194, dated March 5,1659.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANDREW RALs'roN, of West Middletown, in Washingtoncounty, and State of,Pennsylvania, have invented a new and usefulImprovement in Harvesters; and I do hereby declare that the following isa full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon,similar letters referring to similar parts.

The n'ature of my invention consists in attaching to harvesters anarrangement for raking, gathering, and binding gra-in in sheaves, andalso an arrangement for depositing the sheaves in shocks.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I willproceed to describe its construction and operation.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a perspective view ofthebinding and shocking arrangement. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of thepart used for raking and gathering. Fig. 3 is a cnt or sectional view ofthe raking, gathering, and binding arrangement. Fig. 4 is a side view ofthe back part of the frame.

c is the frame of the harvester.

b are two uprights on frame a. To these are attached a drum, c, areceiving-apron7 d, and a sheat'-trough, e.

`fis a chair or seat for the binder, which is supported by twopedestals, g. These pedestals pass through the cross-piece ot' frame aand rest on a spring, Z. IL, i, and j are levers, and 7c are guides forthe levers It and j.

u is a compressing-hook.

m is the wheel which supports the harvester, and from which thedriving-power emanates.

c and w are two movable levers which support the raking-reel x. Theselevers have their bearings in two uprights, a' and a2, and are connectedwith shaft y by two connecting-rods, c. The shaft y is supported by thetwo bearings t, one of which' is shown in Fig. 2.

b is a gathering-finger. c is a roller furnished with small brushesplaced on the roller in a spiral or screw form, as represented by thedotted lines. Ilhis roller extends beyond the front of the harvester,and is connected to the gathering-finger b', and is used for the purposeof gathering the fallen grain onto the horizontal apron 'w'.

1,2 and 3 are drums used in connection with drum c for operating theendless aprons w. On these endless aprons are cross-stripsr. l2, 13, and14 are pulleys used for driving the raking-reel w. y

The two endless aprons are arranged as represented in Fig. 3, one beinghorizontal and the other inclined upward. These aprons and theraking-reel are operated by suitable gearing connected with the beveledwheel 15, Fig. 3. The wheels 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and l0 (represented by theplain circles in Fig. 4) are used for the purpose of imparting thedesired mo tion to thedrums l, 2, and 3.

o is the shocking-carriage, which is attached to the frame of theharvester by two rods,one of Which is shown at u in Fig. 1. Thiscarriage moves on a caster, which is placed in or near the center of thecarriage, under the point marked c. This carriage is furnished with ashock-chamber which has a movable bottoni, in two parts, p and q. Thepart p drops down, and the part q, being hinged at r, is moved out bydrawing the cord t, which is attached to lever s. rIhe raking-reel m israised or lowered by attaching to the lever w the lever commonly usedfor raising and lowering the cutters.

The operation ot' my improvement is as follows: 'lhe harvester, with theshocking-carriage attached thereto, is drawn up to the work in theordinary way, and as the grain is cut it is raked onto the horizont-a1endless apron by the raking-reel a', and is carried forward by thisapron to the inclined apron up which it is carried and deposited on thereceivingapron d, and when a suflicient quantity to forni a sheaf isgathered ou apron d, by raising lever L the apron is turned down and thegrain drops into the trough c. Then by pressing down the lever j thecompressing-hook u will compress the sheaf. A band is then placed aroundit in the usual way. The sheaf is then thrown from trough c onto theshocking-carriage o. A man on this carriage places the sheaves in theshock-chamber, and when the shock is completed it may be compressed byusing cord t, attached to lever s, and then secured`by a suitable band.The bottom gis then drawn out by drawing on cord t. The drawing out ofbottom q causes bottomp to drop, thereby depositing the shock on theground. The bottoms are then readjusted and the same operation repeated.

Having thus described the nature, construc- 2. The use of theshocking-carriage o, furtion, and operation of my improvement, whatnished with a shock-chamber .having a mov- I claim asof myinventon, anddesire to secure able bottom, in two parts, p and g, as herein byLetters Patent of the United States, is described, and for the purposeset forth.

l. The arrangement of the receiving-apron d, sheatltrough e,compressing-hook u, and l ANDREW RALSTON. levers h, i, and j, when usedin connection with the horizontal and inclined gathering-apronsWitnesses:

fw', as herein described, and for the purpose JAS. B. JOHNSTON,

set forth. JAMES J. JOHNSTON.

